The first benefit I noticed from blogging was that I got to show things from my point of view. I have strong opinions. i talk about my dog, garden, music, food and more. I am an educated person who travels in an uneducated world a lot of the time. Sometimes it is a choice and sometimes a circumstance. Blogging allowed me to express some of the disconnect I feel.

Also, I am in Detroit a lot for music. I see the beauty and the warts. I get to talk about the beauty. And soon I will talk about some of the warts. Another view of Detroit…

The surprise was being able to access the blogs of so many others and read their stories. I see snapshots of life from around the world. It is in a form where I can take it in and reflect. That is truly the best and has expanded my world.

Power down is a literal statement for me right now. I am sitting in my local McDonald’s riding on their free wifi. The date Detroit Edison has given for the return of power is tomorrow at 11:30 p.m.

The last week has been one of appointments, working, studying, out for jazz on Wednesday ( will post when power is restored) and then Friday.

Friday started with me going to work early to get something done. The garage door protested as it rose. I pushed the door opener and the door went up one foot and down one foot. One of the panels is bent and it has done this for years. This time it went catawampus and bent several of the rods that attach to the wheels in the roller track. I was stuck and had to appear at work to be on time in an hour and one half. I called my garage door folks and my boss. My garage door guys were there within one half an hour. They struggled to lift the door so I could get my car out. And I got out. And I ordered my new garage door to be installed Monday( tomorrow). My garage door is shut until then.

Friday evening about 6:00 p.m while I was at work, we heard a thunderstorm through the walls of the mall. It was loud. We usually don’t hear storms in the mall. And when we left, it was partly cloudy with the sun trying to shine.

I drove home as usual but when I got to my block, I couldn’t get home my usual way. A tree was laying across the street. A live wire was down next door and a fire truck was checking the area for more hazards. My tree on the side of my house was split in two by lightning and was deemed a hazard to “right of way”. My house had no power and my dog was having a major anxiety attack.
I had eaten at work so I wasn’t hungry.

I called to report the outage. I fed the dog. I searched for candles and a lighters and the house was aglow in candlelight. I opened all the windows.

There was a noise from the street after about an hour. I looked out and saw pickup trucks and a large equipment hauler with huge jaws. The pick up trucks were parked to provide light and the clean up machine went to work. That pic is at the top of this blog.

A picture of the equipment picking up the tree with jaws to move to the side of the road.

They went to the side of my house and forced the tree split, dropping half the tree to the road. Then, picked it up with the jaws, deposited the half tree on my lawn and moved down the road to the next tree.

My neighbor across the street who still had power gave me her battery operated fan. It was very hot that evening. I really helped me. I met my new next door neighbors and across the street. The neighbor who lent the fan had a tree in her front yard that had dropped two major branches one was pulled from her roof with the help of the guys with the machines. The other was dropped on the other side.

this is less than one half of the branches from my neighbors tree.

My dog is in a high state of anxiety. I took her outside on a leash and she seemed slightly better. All this, especially being without power, has let me enjoy my garden more since I can’t cook. And being with out electricity, especially since I have an electric stove, show me how much I depend on power. The hardest part for me has been a morning without coffee.

My garden did not start as a garden. I had decided when I moved in that I wanted a no fuss yard. When I moved in there was no garden; there were no trees on the lot. How much the yard has changed since I never had any aspirations for having a garden. At the time I worked outside and had no desire to spend time outside when I got home from work.

When I moved in, there was a grassy berm which followed the curve of the corner. It kept kids from cutting across the yard on the way to and from school. On the other hand, my son complained frequently about how hard it was to mow.

My original thought was to make it easier for my son to mow the yard by placing a few plants on the top of the berm. I went to a plant give away at a local farmers market where gardeners who had thinned their garden gave away surplus plants. I picked purple iris and white iris since the yard had come with lilac bushes to match.

When I planted the iris, I learned that it was no ordinary small grassy mound. The previous owner had used it as a dumping ground for changing the driveway. He had thrown some dirt and grass seed on top to cover the mess. My planting the iris included digging up small concrete rocks. I wasn’t sure the iris would survive much less thrive. But, thrive they did. Iris need well drained soil and they certainly had that condition. Three irises became many……

As neighbors stopped to tell me how much they enjoyed my yard and I no longer worked outside, my garden got larger. I found a great deal of pleasure working in the garden. Now, the garden is a calm and relaxing pastime.